CNN presenter Wolf Blitzer had a lengthy interview with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, but ignored the basketball league’s controversial ties to China.
Over the past year, the NBA’s intense relationship with China has been analyzed after league players and coaches have largely refrained from criticizing the country’s human rights violations and expressing support for Hong Kong.
On Wednesday afternoon, ESPN released an explosive report that exposed the alleged child abuse that took place at NBA training academies in China and its inability to provide education, despite Silver’s earlier vote that education would be ” central “for the program.
“A former league employee compared the atmosphere when working in Xinjiang to ‘World War II Germany’,” ESPN reported.
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However, almost two hours after ESPN released its report, Silver appeared in “The Situation Room” and was not only not asked about the explosive exposure, but did not answer questions about the league’s relationship with China.
Instead, Blitzer spent the approximately 16-minute interview discussing the NBA’s ability to resume its season amid the coronavirus outbreak.
NewsBusters editor-in-chief Curtis Houck criticized CNN for omitting the China issue in his interview with Silver, tweeting: “It is as if CNN stinks of China and doesn’t care about the concentration camps that are happening there.”
Houck also noted that CNN’s parent company is TimeWarner, which also owns TNT, an NBA television partner.
The ESPN report detailed how the NBA training academies in China appeared to be largely under the control of the Chinese government with a coach who worked for the program and called it “a training ground for athletes.”
Multiple NBA employees filed complaints about how they witnessed Chinese coaches “hit teenage players” and the lack of education the young participants were receiving.
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NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum and COO told ESPN that the league is “reevaluating” and “considering other opportunities” for the program.
Earlier this month, criticism of the NBA’s ties to China was renewed after it was discovered that customers were prohibited from ordering custom equipment that reads “Free Hong Kong” on its online store.
The store’s operator, Fanatics, suggested that the phrase was “inadvertently prohibited” and the ban was lifted. However, days later, the NBA removed all of the custom gear from its online store.
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Prominent NBA ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski also raised his eyebrows when he sent Senator Josh Hawley, R-Maryland, a profane response to the legislator’s criticism of the league’s decision of “pre-approved social justice slogans” as “Censor Support” for Chinese Communist Party Implementation and Criticism Law.
Wojnarowski issued an apology and was temporarily suspended over the network.
